Category: Virtual Tours

A little-known treasure for the visiting set, and a little-visited site for anyone not from the Silwan neighbourhood of Jerusalem, the spring (Ayin) is rather an oasis set amid a somewhat less tranquil area where excavations to find the lost ‘City of David’ mean increasing pressure on residents.

On the road that today leads from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, there are a number of things that catch one’s eye. The Mar Elias church, for example, an old building surrounded by lush green hills in the springtime. Behind the church, however, are the old bunkers used by Jordanian forces between 1948 and 1967.

The parallel set of bunkers are just on the other side of the road, nestled behind an old Lime furnace, and what is now a settlement community living in a set of disused city buses.

Ahh yes, just a day in the life of the border line. Lets take a walk, shall we?